read this when the mind is loud

Haruki Murakami on how our challenges shape us:

"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.&q

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Aldous Huxley on approaching life with lightness, even in the face of difficulty:

"It's dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you're feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such

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What you’re left with in that neutral state is not neutrality. I think people believe neutrality would be a very bland existence. No, this is the existence little children live. If you look at little children, on balance, they’re generally pretty happy because they are really immersed in the environment and the moment, without any thought of how it

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When a musician covers someone else’s song, they reveal their own warped perspective, since we know what the original sounds like. Because of this, performing a cover song is actually a great way to defne who you are as an artist. When a musician writes a new song that imitates someone else’s song, almost nobody notices the similarity. People don’t

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"The secret of creative work is to make a lot and publish a little.

Don't underestimate the power of giving yourself permission to create junk. Most of what you create will be mediocre or bad.

But that's okay. You only have to show people the good stuff. Make 100 things, discard 90, and share the 10 best. Create, create, create. Edit, edit, edit

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I used to be a parrot, echoing other people's ideas, opinions, and beliefs, because I wasn’t sure of my own. I thought that by ‘borrowing’ and mimicking, I’d be more likeable, it’d be easier to seem cool, clever, or to belong. Looking back now, it gives me the ick—the amount of shit I nodded along to, gross. I think I was scared of looking stupid, ... See more

Embrace the suck. https://t.co/T1bTkLm0hN

“Be satisfied with even the smallest progress," Marcus Aurelius said. We're never going to be perfect—there is no such thing. We’re human. So instead, we should aim for progress, even the smallest amount.